Posts from the ‘repentance unto Christ’ Category

Rom 12:19
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Very often we come across situations where we are not only terribly wronged but also slandered for speaking the truth to those who have wronged us. Moving-on from there… is not so much about saving your image in society but about acting sincerely in that situation in the sight of God. There may be times when you want to bludgeon people (who have wronged you) to death, and it is worse if you’re short tempered because then many who love the thrill of a near death experience will instigated you. Still what you should fear is not so much the Law Enforcement so as to save your own skin but you ought to fear God and nip it at the bud by way of repentance unto God before those thoughts fruition into actions. So, what you must go about doing is the next righteous thing, despite the slander and you will come to notice that when your time of testing is over, that the perpetrator/s who you were contending with is/are dealt with so severely by God, that you will feel sorry for them (Isaiah 10:12).

Psalm 3:7 (Call on Him to give you Justice)Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

Mat 11:28 (Find your rest in Him through your trials)28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

If you insist on avenging yourself, then the only moving-on you will be doing, will be from the frying pan to the fire. However, if you are willing to let the fear of the Lord rule over your heart (Ps 119:10-11), your life shall be blessed, in your moving on from a self-centered life to God-centered life because you will never be able to really move on (Mat 5:4-6) unless you die to yourself and live for the glory of God who is just (Jn 12:24-26). Though you may sometimes be so angry that you can vividly imagine the bloody justice you would stoop to, to set things right. The truth is you are neither God over that situation, nor over yourself, nor over the person you seek to get even with. So, the best thing is to do is to swallow your pride, overcome your anxiety and find your rest in Christ (Mat 11:28-29), by way of reading scripture or listening to some Gospel music because it is in dying to ourselves and living for God that we find true peace in our situations. Moving-on, is not something synonymous with weakness rather it is about portraying the meek nature of Christ where our actions emerge not from the love/faith we have in ourselves but from the love/faith we avail in God through Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16). So, when you place your faith in God, moving-on is the bravest thing you can do while you are at peace, resting in Jesus (Jn 14:27). In fact, when you act from such faith and move on, it makes the people who have hurt you feel insecure for no longer having that emotionally destructive hold on you anymore.

Psalm 14:1
The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.

Prov 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Wisdom serves as a great comforter in helping us move on from acts of vengeance against those who have treated us unjustly. We must thereby understand that we live in a world where people think it’s ok to sin, as long as the people they are sinning against don’t know what they’re up to. However, for those victims who foolishly revere (from unholy fear) those who victimize them, their perpetrators are only encouraged to take advantage of them further because their victims awareness makes them feel unstoppable in their wickedness to a god-like degree. In all these circumstances, these sinners believe there is no God and they are in no way answerable for their actions to God. Though these who are wicked and unrepentant, may be wise in their own eyes, there is more hope for a fool than there is for them (Prov 26:12) & if you are ever stuck in such a circumstance, you need to learn to move on from being concerned about your image in the sight of people to being concerned about your image in the sight of God… in the sense, you need cut these people out of your lives and be totally unabashed about it, because you need not be deceived in revering people from unholy fear but you must learn to revere God from holy fear.

Rev 15
2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

It’s amazing how unbelievers fool themselves into thinking that God doesn’t exist, so they can sin against their neighbour without even a second thought of contending with a gracious yet formidable God (Heb 10:31) because from the fall of Adam unbelievers are each a law to themselves but God can see through them like a sea of glass and if you will look at Rev 15:2 you shall notice that those who have come out of them (sea of glass) (Rev 7:14) were tutored in the fear of the Lord (Rev 15:4) unto wisdom and in their victory (Mat 24:13) they are equipped to praise God for the Salvation He has accomplished in them (Phil 1:6) through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus (Rom 5:9). For some reason I guess the unbelievers don’t get the idea of God’s good justice playing out in their life because their sinning is so rampant accompanied with that deliberate blindness that ‘there is no God’ that incurring God’s justice becomes as common as breathing air and if they have managed to fool themselves so far, fooling themselves further to have no fear-of-God is not a far-fetched idea but one which maintains them as fools in their sinning against the Triune God Almighty.

1 Corinthians 3
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

I would like to conclude this piece on moving-on from vengeance by expounding on the above scripture. Salvation is sure when we stand on the rock that is Jesus Christ and we mature spiritually depending on how we build on this foundation. For those whose hearts are established in Christ, moving-on from vengeance is a lesson we will learn either willingly which is the easier way or unwillingly which is the hard way (1Cor 3:15/Mat 3:11) because such is the pivotal role the Sovereign will of God plays in our lives.

James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

As a reformed Christian believer, I do believe that “justification is by faith alone” but very often we have humanist fools who differentiate faith from works because somehow, they want to credit the salvation God offers us in Jesus Christ to the works they do by their own volition. So, they like to see faith separate from works because they would like to see this all coming from their own volition. After all, their faith exists because they choose to believe from their own free will and since this faith arises from their own volition it must not reflect their depraved spiritual condition, lest their faith be proven counterfeit. It’s as Jesus says that you can tell a tree from its fruit (Mat 7:19-20), a good tree bear good fruit and bad tree bears bad fruit. As for most unbelieving goats (self-righteously stubborn humanists) who are wise in their own eyes, they subconsciously realize that if faith and works are not considered separate, then their wicked lives would prove that their faith is useless and so they fool themselves into believing that faith and works is separate in the sight of God.

Titus 1
13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

If you were to read the account of the fall of mankind in Adam as reported in Genesis 3, you would notice that what Adam willingly chose over the righteousness of God was the righteousness of self. In Adam, we have this natural apathy for the truth about God and His righteousness (Is 5:20) but in Christ the elect are spiritually reborn (Jn 3:3), being given this living hope which is from God (2Cor 4:8-10). It’s very important that scripture be understood in the light of scripture because when you look at scripture like Phil 3:14 in the light of Phil 4:13 or for that matter Eph 2:10 in the light of Eph 2:8-9, we understand that works is simply the evidence of genuine faith. This is why on one hand the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) while on the other hand it says that faith without works is dead (Jam 2:26).

Eph 2
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The faith and works argument is very much like the grace and law argument. The humanist however argues that faith and works are separate because he/she foolishly believes faith & works are actuated by his/her own free will and not by the Sovereign will of God as the Bible teaches (Eph 2:8-10). When it comes to grace and law, the humanist goes on another wild goose chase because he/she believes that the grace he/she receives in salvation is a license for him/her to live as he/she pleases (Rom 6:15). However, grace seen from a Biblical perspective teaches us that saving grace is that unmerited favour by which God turns us around from ourselves unto Himself (Jn 12:24-26) because truthfully, we are not God but God is God. It is therefore in turning to God that we learn there is standard we are to live by. The Moral Law is the very nature… the very image/character of God in which we were made (Gen 1:26). Imagine the immense privilege we have been given by grace (unmerited favour) to share in the very nature of the Almighty Triune God! Though we are not under the Law but under grace (Rom 6:14), those who won’t live by the Law shall perish apart from the law (Rom 2:12-16) because if we won’t glorify God by conforming to the image of God-the-Son (Rom 8:29), we have no right to the life offers us in Himself (Jn 14:6). The Bible says that the Law is like a mirror, which the elect look into and make amends in their own nature (Jam 1:23), in willingly conforming to the nature of Christ as revealed in scripture. The aspect of grace is in this, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8) that we may not just share at His table but also share in His nature. A nature which is now a Law we live by! Still, we are justified through faith alone and not by works because if we were justified by our works then the salvation we have in Jesus would not be by the power of God but by the power of our own will, and this blasphemes the redeeming merit of Jesus Christ who secured for all His people, salvation in all its fullness which is lacking in nothing. I hope you are able to see how works identify genuine faith by which we are justified just as the Moral Law identifies with saving grace by which we are saved. By grace alone… through faith alone… in Christ alone!

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

To conclude, remember how Jesus cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit that the Lord of lords may eat and be satiated (Mark 11:12-25)? This is very much along the lines of Mat 7:21 where Jesus says not all who call Him Lord shall enter His abode but only those who do the will of His Father because just like faith and works aren’t separate, so too recognizing Jesus as Lord over our lives is not separate from obeying His Commandments/Law in our lives.

Did you know that India’s Standard & Poor’s rating stands at “BBB-” implying we are adequate in capacity to meet our financial commitments but adverse economic conditions or changing circumstances are more likely to weaken our capacity to meet these financial commitments! India’s population is currently 1.345 billion, and according to ICE 360° Survey conducted in 2016 over 90% of the average monthly household income is under Rs. 35000. What worsens the matter is that there are over 400 thousand beggars in India as reported by NDTV in 2015, while DNA reported in 2016 that over 60 thousand children and kidnapped and forced into begging each year. Add to this the 21.5 million who work for the government with about 3 million in central government and 185 million employees working under state government. The reason am counting government employees it because these jobs are supported through the taxes paid by the common man. This is that socialist’s utopia that defines a democratic nation, that the people who are actually inching the nation onward are marginal in number but these are not helped in anyway, instead these are taxed further for the benefit of the rest who are sitting on their butts. It is for this reason that many of NASA’s scientists are Indian and the reason why Bose couldn’t find a market for his sound engineering in India (his home country) as he did in the USA on the count of its Christian environment, which makes it the land of opportunity like no other.
Coming back to India, there is nothing wrong with giving alms to people who are in need but the people who are in need are those who are struggle to see a better day, not those who are living off that religious gesture of alms giving. Sometime when I see beggars lined up outside Hindu Temples and Mosques, I think its almost like a set up to make the rich look good with their generosity that comes across as convenience to ease their conscience, as over people trying to help their neighbours learn to make a living for themselves. I think able-bodied, doesn’t necessarily mean handicapped but people who are willing to work hard for a living despite their physical or mental setbacks… which in other words is to carry your cross and follow Jesus, wherever it is you are in life (Lk 14:27). The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and in him we learn something called dignity of life(Jn 14:6), which is a far cry from the self-righteously abusive mafia run begging business we see here in India. Yes, Jesus did heal and was sympathetic towards many beggars and lepers but after their encounter with Jesus they did not go back to being vessels of the people’s sympathy. Rather they became bold witnesses for the gospel standing against even people in power to speak out for Jesus (Jn 9:3-8, 16-27).

Mat 5
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

1 Cor 15:10
10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

I don’t know how many of you have watched this movie “Slum Dog Millionaire”, the maiming of people in that movie in preparing them to beg is as real as it gets in that movie. There have been newspaper reports where doctors have taken bribes from beggars to maim them, that people may take pity on them and give them money. The problem is not so much about people being financially poor but about them being spiritually poor and living in denial of it. If we were to look at the scripture mentioned above, we see that salvation involves coming to terms with God’s saving grace, that unmerited favour by which we learn how filthy our self-righteousness is before the Majesty of a perfect Triune God, who saves us in Jesus Christ. By this grace we receive in Christ, we receive a spiritual rebirth, which makes God interests our own interest and gives us that capacity to do His will and good pleasure (Eph 2:8-10).Phil 3:14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Phil 4:13
13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

In India, there are many different kinds of beggars. Some of them are even revered by the people. Take the eunuchs for instance, whose blessing or curse is seemed to carry a lot of power as believed by many because they have seemingly given up their manhood for such a lifestyle of spiritual power. I remember my stupid cousin once offered a eunuch Rs. 5 in the local train to bless his little sister, his sister whom he today doesn’t talk to anymore. My colleague too, recently had a son and he laughingly told us that eunuchs came demanding Rs.5000 since he had a baby boy and he had to give it to them or else they would have taken his baby away. I lost my temper just listening to that… a bunch of castrated men come demanding a ransom from a father else they will kidnap the baby & this fool thinks it was the right thing to pay them the money. My righteous disgust at this reverence for eunuchs was however met by reproof from another fool of a colleague, who said that eunuch have supernatural powers in brings curses or blessings to pass and he said this with a tear rolling down his cheek. Also, I need to mention that according to the telegraph UK, there were about 2 million eunuchs in India as of 2014, who live in groups under a eunuch guru and make a living through begging. The funny thing, people who become eunuchs, do so because there’s money in it. It’s just like a beggar maiming himself to become subject for the people sympathy. It’s not a nice thing to live at the mercy of people, I get it but this is the curse of a godless society where people are not religiously tutored to love their neighbours as themselves. The masses from the fall of Adam think they are gods to themselves and so they will only help those who call upon their self-righteous pity or trigger their unholy fear because that is how people who are a law to themselves function.Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus has said that you can tell a tree by looking at it fruit (Mat 7:17-20) and when you look at how intricately beggars fit in from a sense of culture and religion in India, you come to know that what we are dealing with here is really a social problem fabricated by a pagan belief system. You must understand that there would no supply if there was no demand and so since the rich and powerful want to feel good in the self-righteousness, there is therefore a market for beggars in this country which is of no help to national growth as its only aim is to attempt the satisfy the godless pursuits of those who are in power in an environment where ignorance is bliss.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

James 1:12-13
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

The above two verses tell you what it is like to be satiated in God and what it is like to try and satisfy yourself with idolatry. Idolatry is simply the means of serving your own ungodly interests by way of fabricating gods for your worship, pursuing a life of greed, sexual immorality or a desire to wield power from that pride of self. Being satiated by God on the other hand is about using all the means God has provided you in life to serve His interest and good pleasure. It is only possible to know God through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:18), unto whom God draws the elect (Jn 6:44) and offers His salvation (Jn 1:12-13), transforming us each day into the likeness of His Son (Rom 8:29) for we who belong to God, belong to Christ (Rom 8:9), made and restored for Jesus’s glory (Col 1:16-18). Now, let’s take a look at a couple of scriptures that highlight the absolute frustration of self-idolatry compared to the pure satisfaction of serving the Lord.

Psalm 1
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

John 4
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

If we were to go back to the fall of Adam & Eve in Gen 3:1-6, we see from verse 5 where the idolatry of self really started, and it is for this reason the Lord Jesus Christ says that man can either serve money or serve God, not both (Mat 6:24) because nothing serves our own vested interest like money. There is nothing wrong with earning money, money can very well be used to serve God’s righteous interests i.e. furthering the gospel, nourishing ourselves & feeding our families. The problem is when, we see money as the means as furthering our rebellion against God, and in doing so, fund our own destruction (Prov 8:36). The thing about idolatry is that, we value only that which serves our ungodly interests and only for so long as it does, after that everything becomes dispensable and disposable because from the fall, our lives are founded on a lie that we are gods to ourselves (Gen 3:5) and so unlike God who does good in serving His own interests, we do only the most heinous things in serving nothing more than our own interests because the truth is the Triune God Almighty is God and we are not.

Isaiah 49:15
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

Mat 10
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

So, the only rightful place for God in our lives is FIRST PLACE, over our neighbours (friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances). If anything but God, takes FIRST PLACE then you will see yourself doing the most heinous things in justifying that idolatry. I must add the world is filled with the worst of hypocrites who calls what is good: evil and what is evil: good (Is 5:20). In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees claimed Jesus did all the good he did, not by the power of God but by the power of the chief of demons Beelzebul but that is exactly how it is with the people of the world, who are gods to themselves, their wishful thinking allows them to blurt out any damn nonsense which they desire others to accept as truth, simply because it came out of their mouth but the truth is these fools aren’t God, only the Triune God Almighty is God. Therefore, it is only the word of God that endures forever (Is 40:8) because it is the truth of The Triune God Almighty, who really is God and hence His word goes forth and doesn’t return void (Isaiah 55:11). Unlike rejecting the vested lies of fallen men, rejecting the truth of God revealed in Christ only works towards our destruction (Jn 3:16-18) according to the righteous will of God.

Psalm 34
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
9 O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.
10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

Mat 10
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

I would like to conclude by saying that to fear anything more than God is idolatry as well because Psalm 34:10 says that even the most fearsome unbelievers, will never be satiated in life with everything they have but those who seek and fear the Lord, whose lives are accountable to their Lord-&-Saviour Jesus Christ, these shall be satisfied in God & not be left in want of any good thing (Mat 6:33).

I have a theory with enough Biblical support to decode the number of this man who is 666 from Rev 13:18. I have reason to believe that this man is fallen Adam, who was deceived by Satan to receive his own righteous standard which was passed down to all his progeny through procreation. This nature of rebellion against God that comes from men who are each a law to themselves from fallen Adam is the spirit of Anti-Christ (1Jn 4:3 & 2Jn 1:7).

Deut 6 (Christ Law)8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Rev 13 (Anti-Christ Law)16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Have you ever wondered, what it is to be a law to yourself, it is to be a god to yourself because you are answerable to none but yourself for everything you do and this is what happened in the fall (Gen 3:5-6). The whole world however has been deceived in Adam because nobody is really answerable to only to himself, he in fact stands accountable to that ungodly peer pressure, which determines his survival in it. So, if you look at Rev 13:16-17 above, you understand that godless societies exude that unholy fear by which it’s members are forced to yield for the sake of their survival, because their members are mere existentialists, estranged from God, knowing nothing more than their own existence. God’s Law on the other hand was revealed to us men through Christ (Jn 1:18), which in the Old Testament was through the Angel of the Lord a.k.a. the Son of God and in the New Testament through Jesus Christ (Gal 3:19). This Law is the very nature of God, whose image we were made in and whose character we were made to represent in our being through in His Son Jesus Christ (Col 1:16-20). Now, what exactly is this Law?

Mat 22:36-4036 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.38 This is the first and great commandment.39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is the Moral Law of God, whose interest we are to serve before our own. So, if you were to look at this in the context of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20: 1-17, you would notice that this Law reflects the first four laws of the Ten Commandments instructing the Saints to fiercely love God with all their strength and second to love the people in our environment as ourselves. This Law as Jesus has taught us is not merely exercised in deed but also in thought (Job 31:1/Mat 5:17-20 & 27-28), which is metaphorically referred to as binding the Law to your forehead and right arm. Now if you were to take a look at the Ten Commandments, you will see what makes up the anti-Christian law, because Biblically a three time reference signifies fulfillment, so the number 6 representing the six laws to do with our neighbour, mentioned thrice i.e. 666, signifies an unsaved people (Rev 13:8) who are each a law to themselves. This is how a godless syndicate works in society, where neither grace nor deserving justice is entertained because surely you know what it is to be at the mercy of people and you know how senseless violence promotes that unholy fear by which these godless syndicates bring its people to remain committed to their cause for the sake of their own survival, being convinced by the awe in which they are brought to stand of ungodly syndicates who are recognized for their wickedness both in thought and deed (Rev 13:12-15).

Psalm 14:10The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;There is no one who does good.

Psalm 84:10For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Mat 1028 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

If we were to look at Ps 14:10 & Mat 10:28 in the light of Psalm 84:10, you would know how critical it is to remain devoted to God even in the face of affliction. If we were to look at the definition of Israel as given in Gen 32:28, we see God’s sovereignty in the salvation of His elect in this, that the godly are sanctified in the furnace of affliction which is the world, and prevail by the power of Christ… just as Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego did walking with the Son of God (Angel of the Lord) in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3:25). The Church, which comprises of both New Testament and Old Testament saints is the spiritual Israel (Eph 2:11-13), that thrives by the Spirit of Christ even in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus is that seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16), which germinates in the hearts of God’s elect in calling them out of the world and adopting them into the family of God. This seed of Abraham, is the Spirit of Christ by whose power the individual who is called unto God, successfully resists the nature of fallen Adam, which is so naturally prevalent in the world that the Bible refers to it as that broad road of destruction (Mat 7:13). Surely this nature of fallen Adam is Satanic and resisting this nature (James 4:7) in the world is not to merely to fight against flesh and blood but to wage war against the spiritual forces or darkness (Eph 6:12) but as always there is hope for the elect in Christ, as mentioned in Rom 8:38-39. It was through the Son and for His glory that all creation came into being (Col 1:16), a glory which He shares with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and it is through His Son that God promises a complete takeover of this world (Col 1:20/Dan 2:44-45). For there shall come a time when this world shall stop glorifying His good justice under the deception of the anti-Christ and be transformed to glorify His mercy and grace in Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16-18) as prophesied in Isaiah 11, for in this God delights, seeing His image restored in mankind by the redeeming power of His Almighty Son.

Prov 26 (Old Testament)4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

Very often when I correct people on their lifestyle choices, I am supposedly schooled on what the Bible teaches concerning YOU SHALL NOT JUDGE. I happen to understand that people find their security in numbers (not in God) and when I express my disagreement on homosexuality, abortion, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, I suddenly see people who claim to believe in “live and let live” turn fascist, from a sense of insecurity that undermines the sweet lies they have been living by, which helps them maintain their complacent and lukewarm nature towards the truth about God (Rev 3:16). The road to damnation is indeed broad (Mat 7:13) thanks to the fall of mankind in Adam, and for the many who swim against the flow by the redeeming power of Christ, these are labeled by the world as homophobic, Islamophobic and haters of humanity, but God has already warned us in His word (Prov 26:4 & Mat 7:6) of the kind of backlash we would suffer in coming after him (John 15:19). This is the cost of discipleship which we are to take into account when we take that decision to carry our crosses and follow Jesus (Luke 14:26-33), lest we be the soil where our spiritual growth is choked by the worries of the world being unable to bear fruit in Christ (Mat 13:22), which brings God-the-Father to prune these away in His time (John 15:1-6). Surely the cost is great (Mat 5:11-12) but the harvest is priceless (Mat 13:44) [afforded to us who persevere by the redeeming power of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:14 & 4:13)] and justifies the cost in every way because the Triune God Almighty is deserving of such sincere worship in truth and in Spirit (John 4:23-24).

Mat 7 (New Testament)1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Taking a look at the Mat 7:1 presented above, we see that the context in which we are told not to judge is in the sense that we are to practice what we preach. Take for instance, liberals in the USA who speak out against “gun violence” because the death toll in 2018 is so far 2,213 with 3,772 injuries on the whole while these same liberals actually support abortion, where these licensed murders across USA alone is 166,971 in 2018 so far. So, when you consider the reasons for abortions are: 0.3% in cases of rape, 0.03% in cases of incest, 0.1% in cases of risk to maternal life, 0.8% in cases of risk to maternal health, 0.5% in cases of fetal health issues and 98.3% being elective due to socio economic reasons; you understand how much these liberals value their fun and how little they value their God given responsibilities, which as opposed to gun-rights is not in the interest of helping civilians defend themselves in the case of a threat. So, for the liberal fool who does not fear God (Prov 1:7) it really is no big deal to hide a mountain behind a molehill by justifying abortions with reasons like rape, incest and maternal health. Now, if liberal hypocrisy allows them to do that, it therefore is well within their lifestyle of double standards to vouch for gun-control to make their self-righteousness look good being estranged from God and all truth. However, it is as the Bible says in Prov 8:36 about these humanist fools that: those who hate God eventually love death in any and every form.

Ezek 3
18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Eph 2
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It’s amazing to see the extent to which people are self-centered that they will actually use the “Word of God” to excuse their sin and hear nothing that will make them feel uncomfortable in their sin. To add to this, you also have foolish sympathizers who will senselessly side with the #LGBT and every other apostate religion saying, it is not for you but for God to judge. On the contrary, in bearing witness to the Gospel we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as called upon by God to judge these godless fools that they may repent unto Christ and not perish forever in the fires of hell (Acts 2:38). Also, knowing the kind of hypocrites unbelievers are, these same people who tell us to keep our mouths shut concerning their sin are very capable of telling God on the day of judgement that there was no one to correct them and show them what is right when they were alive and well upon the earth, else they would have turned from the sin and believed the Gospel. Surely, God is sovereign and God is good, and it is in His sovereignty and He decrees us to speak out against the sins of the world (Ezek 3:18-19/Eph 2:10) and call them to repentance that they may believe and live a holistic life, delighting no longer in their sin but in the righteousness of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

Numbers 11 (Old Testament)16 The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Luke 10 (New Testament)After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

If you look at the scripture mentioned above you will understand that preaching of Gospel is based on the understanding that you one must repent in order to believe in the Gospel and unless one does not realize his/her sinful nature before the divine majesty and holiness of God, there really is no truth in the saving faith a person has received. Remember, Jesus came to called call sinners unto Salvation and not self-righteous fools, who are wise in their own eyes (Luke 5:32). So, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit are not called to tell sinners of the wonderful plans God has for their lives despite their sin as though God Almighty exists to wait on their every need in exchange for some religious attention. Instead, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit are given a living spirit to pursue the righteousness of God and His Gospel, and in doing so, call out the grave nature of the people’s sin that they may repent and turn to God, for as much as God is glorified in His good justice as He does so in His great mercy, it is in His mercy in which He delights, because it is by the power of His resistible grace that He draws people unto Himself in Christ, propitiating/overcoming their sinful nature by the power of Jesus’ blood and in doing so conforming their nature to His own likeness, because that is how we were made… in His image (Gen 1:26/Rom 8:29).

Rev 13 (look at this in the context of John 16:7-15)17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

I would like to conclude by simply saying this, the thoughts of the world and ways of the world, is nowhere compared to thoughts of God and ways of God, which as Isaiah 55:8-9 describes is as different as the high heavens over the earth. So, for a person who is fallen in Adam, who is a god to himself/herself, he/she naturally likes to use every wicked instrument in his/her arsenal to rise over and belittle his neighbour, and we know that is wrong because the truth is no man/woman is God, except of course for Jesus who is the God-the-Son incarnate as Man to be that unblemished sacrifice for all sin. For most part when Christians point out the sins of people in this godless world, they perceive it as belittling and what further agitates them is that there is absolute truth in that discerning judgement, which the unbeliever finds it very hard to deal with. So, the unbeliever finds it very hard to die to that that god-identity he/she has of himself/herself (John 12:24-26) and prostrate (bow out) before God and His righteousness revealed in Jesus (John 1:17) who truthfully is God. Yes, the Christian lifestyle is one that is set against the grain of this unbelieving world but God has promised in His word that He is going to reclaim this world to Himself in His time (Dan 2:31-45 & Col 1:16-20) and unbelief is only here to make hay while the sun shine because God sovereign making the rain fall and sun shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike (Mat 5:45).

When I look at how people begin smoking tobacco at a very young age under the influence of peer pressure, I am reminded of the Genesis 3:1-6 account of the fall of man. Like the statuary warning on every cigarette pack, Adam too was warned by God that if he would eat the fruit of self-righteousness, he would die spiritually in that very moment for having forsaken the righteousness of God. This is very much like smokers today, they see the warning on the pack but it does not matter much to them because they are wise in their own eyes and that purview they have of themselves is estranged from all truth. It’s like the lines in that famous anti-smoking advertisement: “with a cigarette in my hand, I felt like a man… with a cigarette in my hand, I was a dead man.” This is precisely what happened to Adam under the deception of Satan, his self-righteousness fired up his rebellion against God and in doing so brought about a death in his spirit. This spiritual death, Adam has passed down to all his posterity through procreation but it did not thwart God from keeping His people in Christ (Col 1:16-20) even in the midst of Satan’s bastards who serve instead as that furnace of affliction, under God’s sovereign hand to burn out the dross (Heb 12:4-8) and sanctify the Godly into His image (moral likeness) in which we were made.

Psalm 84:10
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Proverbs 8:34-36
Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

Unbelief is more like that lemming kind of mentality, where the goal of their lives is to bring death upon themselves simply because they find their strength in numbers and not in the truth of that Salvation, which God presents us in Jesus Christ. So, if we look at verses like Isaiah 55:8-9 and Rom 3:4 we understand that true religion requires us to swim against the world’s idea of religion. This is not accomplished by the power of our will but by the power of Christ in us (Phil 4:13) that we may overcome the world’s lethal but sweet lies and persevere our way unto God as worshipers genuine in spirit and truth (Jn 4:23-24). This is only possible for those who are called out of this world to unite with their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because their salvation is not powered by their own will but by the will of God who saves (Jn 1:12-13). The capacity therefore to please God is not about you going out of your way to do something good but about receiving a whole new nature in Christ (2Cor 5:17), which shifts your orientation/worship from serving yourself to serving God.

Mat 16:13-18
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Looking at Mat 16:13-18 above, we see that Jesus is not too concerned about what the masses say of Him, as much as he is concerned about His people knowing who He is. It is for this reason that those who believe their survival is dependent (serve their own interest) on pleasing the people around them find it outside their nature to take a stand for the Gospel. This situation is what the Lord Jesus sights in the Parable of Sower (Mat 13:7-22) of those who try to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, concerning remaining pleasers of the world while trying to adhere God in His righteousness. These people do not have that gumption to trust Jesus with their lives because their unbelief makes them look to their peers and not to God for their survival. There is nothing wrong with helping people in need, the question really is who are you doing it for, to please whom, and from what motive? So, it all boils down to… are you motivated by holy fear/zeal to please God and serve His interest or are you moved by unholy fear to please the people in power and serve your own interest? This is precisely the difference between the people of God and the people of the world (1Jn 4:1-6), we are all human and the only difference is: what is at work in us and to what purpose? Either Satan’s deception is at work in you by way of your self-righteousness or the righteousness of God is at work in you by the saving power of Jesus Christ. In any case, unbelievers always live under the fear of being left out because the world is moving at such a fast pace, and so they try to do all they can to further with their godless take on life. The truth is, unbelief is going to be wiped out from this world (Hab 2:14/Heb 8:11) and that is why their conscience as unbelievers is filled with that unholy fear (Is 2:19/Rev 6:16) of being left behind while their estranged relationship with God and the truth about Jesus, keeps them away from God’s solution to a fulfilling life. Now, here’s some scripture we could look at to learn the crux of a Godly life.

Jer 9:23-24
23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

Mat 6:30-33
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The world is so conditioned with pleasing people to serve their own interests that they don’t get the goal of a godly life, because it is not within their fallen nature to please God and serve His interest. It’s sad to see humanist fools interpret verses like Mat 23:11-12 as speaking of the humility required of the believer as not unto God to serve the needy (Mat 25:40) but unto pleasing those who wield corrupt power so as to serve themselves. I am reminded of a very apt quote in Christian circles that says “a man that kneels before God, stands up to the world”, which is very true indeed because you are either spiritually adopted/restored in Christ (1John 3:10) to be a lion unto the world and a lamb unto God or a bastard son of Satan continuing from the fall of Adam to become a lion unto God and lamb unto world. The only thing is, unlike God, Satan has been a murderer from the beginning & deception is like his mother tongue (John 8:44) in bringing forth the fall of mankind while fabricating every counterfeit world religion and superstition in people’s mind to keep the ball rolling.

Proverbs 9
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
11 For by me your days will be multiplied,
And years of life will be added to you.
12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself,
And if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

Mat 10
28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

I would like to conclude this post by saying this, if you truly understand the sheer majesty of God and privilege His people enjoy in worshiping Him, you will understand that God is worth everything you can give, even your life if it is called for in bearing witness for the Gospel (Mat 16:25). Please note, that I am in no way implying that in coming over to Christ, you have to go suicide bombing public assemblies to help the world take notice your new-found religion while you get a direct passage to heaven, because that is certainly not a Christian teaching, it is an Islamic one, and there is a heaven and hell difference between these two religions. Bearing witness to the Gospel only requires you to resist that peer pressure and remain faithful to God by way of keeping the Moral Law and when you do that you will understand to what extent this godless world is fascist but then if the Sovereign Triune God Almighty is for us, it really doesn’t matter who is against us (Rom 8:31, 38-39).